Interview: William Shatner on Star Trek, Incubus, and his new documentary You Can Call Me Bill

You are on the wrong website if you don’t know who William Shatner is. Whether or not you are a Star Trek fan is irrelevant for you to appreciate Shatner’s impact on pop culture. From his role as Captain James T. Kirk to turns on The Twilight Zone, TJ Hooker, Rescue 911, Boston Legal, and more, Shatner has been a pop culture stalwart since the 1960s. Having written books, released albums, and performed on stage, William Shatner’s legacy hit a pinnacle when he joined Jeff Bezos for a spaceflight a few years ago. From fictional space to real stars, Shatner is a legend.

At 93 years old, William Shatner also knows his time on this planet is coming to an end in the near future. His new documentary, You Can Call Me Bill, mediates his place in the cosmos and what it has meant to have lived almost a century of happiness. The stream-of-consciousness interview combines footage from his vast resume and direct commentary from the man himself on his life, his loves, and what he has learned over the past nine decades. It is a fascinating and unique look into the life of an icon many of us have grown up admiring.

I was privileged to speak with William Shatner about the new documentary and the profound impact his roles have had on my own life. I asked him about his work on the Esperanto-language film Incubus and the opening camping scene in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, which he also directed. We touched on his wish to have refilmed his final scene as Captain Kirk in Star Trek Generations and what his interactions with fans have been like over the years. Check out the full interview in the embed above.